Peau d'Espagne Santa Maria Novella 1901

A caveat. My review is based on an older, frosted bottle, hence, it might not smell like the ones Santa Maria Novella is selling today.

This perfume is a tour-de-force on smoky birchwood and "leather" accord built around that and other materials (perhaps some animalics), with prominent flint-like/metallic and ashy nuances. I detect a quick burst of citrus and herbs in the opening for a couple of minutes, after which it goes dark and medieval with no return or glimmers of light. To my nose, no florals or resins to pamper the composition. Nada. It is heavy, smoky, and woody, with that ashy, cold metal feel and brown leather accord holding through the dry-down. I also don't get the civet, although it is listed, yet I'm sure they use some musks to create the leather sensation. This is a butch leather perfume that smells very ancient and medieval. I think of a massive fireplace with logs of birchwood fueling the fire that helps dry some leather garments resting on the cold stone pavement of the hall nearby. Some armory sits close since I can't shake the metallic and flint-like smell out of my mind. The perfume smells like it was put together at the beginning of the apothecary that Santa Maria Novella was centuries ago. I'm also impressed with the quality of the materials in this perfume. I can tell they are using a few, but very high-quality raw materials. I don't think I have smelled a better note of birchwood in a perfume before. I can almost see and feel the wood and its texture with my nose.

In a nutshell, this is a beautiful smoky-leather perfume, grandiose in its butch and rough representation, although not exactly what I have in mind when I think of a proper "Peau D'Espagne" accord. But if you want a trip back in time, centuries ago, this one is very much worth the journey.

IG:@memory.of.scents

Imagine this: medicine, horses, stables, sweat, leather gloves and sex! This is exactly how this spanish leather smells!

Personally I get a lot of medicinal and sorta herbal nuances with something burning in the background. I picture a small medieval town and apothecary with dusty wooden shelves full of all sorts of medicine bottles driping on the already soaked wooden floor, making that aromatic feel in the air which is intertwined with sweaty tanned leather gloves, horse stables nearby and maybe even a breeze from a brothel across the street!

Peau d'Espagne opens with an almost camphorous mix of heavy herbs, creating a menthol-like accord. It is quite challenging, but not unpleasant. This open very slowly recedes but never dissipates, instead allowing a rather strong birch leather note to emerge and take the fore. By this time the overall scent is much more wearable and enjoyable. I have a hard time identifying any other individual notes here, as the herbal mix still obscures a lot of anything else the scent has to offer. Projection is good, and longevity is above average.

Peau d'Espagne is definitely not my kind of leather scent. That said, I don't dislike it either. The opening is tough to get through due to that herbal eucalyptus mix that is just downright potent. If you can make it past the opening and early heart notes, then there is a decent leather here to discover... The problem is I fear most, myself included will not want to experience the couple hours of Peau d'Espagne in order to get the relatively good payoff much later when there are so many good leather offerings on the market, both classic and contemporary. I definitely think Peau d'Espagne is a nice scent in its own way and recommend a sniff to leather fans, but I think I will keep to more pleasant leathers like Cuiron and Cuir Pleine Fleur. I give Peau d'Espagne a 3 out of 5 rating and a strong neutral.

Peau d'Espagne (Spanish Leather) is a brash, dark leather fragrance that drills home its point without losing the plot somewhere over amberland or vanillaville. Unlike cuirs de Russie (Russian leathers), leather fragrances classified as peau d'espagne (Spanish leather) types do not rely primarily on birch tar for their smoky, leathery effect, but instead recreate it through the use of a complex locking system of various dry herbs, flowers (carnation), and dusty woods.

The Peau d'Espagne type of leather came about from the process of curing the leather for fine ladies' gloves with a sweet-smelling mixture of flowers and botanical essences, which of course masked the terrible stench of uncured leather. Peau d'Espagne is the oldest, and finest, surviving representative of this type of leather, and although it does contain a small amount of rectified birch tar, its total effect owes more to its complex floral construction than to birch tar. Although it plainly skews masculine, I think this could be phenomenally sexy on the right woman - a bad-ass perhaps, or if playing against type, a quiet, feminine girl who wants her aura to read as unexpectedly kinky.

The leather note is strong and dry, a piece of raw cowhide waiting to be tanned in a vat of dyes. But though it is dark, it is also fresh with an underbelly of green herbs, camphor, and even a touch of mint flooding the gloom with slivers of light. The florals lend their effect rather than a distinct aroma of their own - the carnation note gives a flourish of clove-scented powder to the leather, and the violet leaf a sharp, green, almost metallic edge.

As with a few other Santa Maria Novella fragrances, there is a distinctly antiseptic note floating through the heart here, almost like TCP or germolene. This adds a pleasantly medicinal touch, and replicates somewhat the balance achieved in something like Tubereuse Criminelle between the floral, creamy side and the harsh, wintergreen aspect. It is this antiseptic mouthwash note that brings together all the other elements - the leather, the herbs, the carnation, the tar. A striking, if rather rough leather fragrance in a tradition of Peau d'Espagne that is no longer in fashion.

Now this is a fragrance from the old world which I can imagine a officer from world war one would wear. I can picture him in his tent off the battlefield having a shave and applying this scent like a aftershave. lol

It opens with a very spicy smoky medicinal woods, within this I can smell the cedar and cloves. It stays like this for a good few hours until it calms down a bit and the leather comes through. The leather is a raw stark leather before it's been dyed and smoothed out. At this heart stage of the scent you get hints of bergamot, florals, soap and a tiny hint of sweetness.

As time passes and we move into the base notes a patchouli and civet accord take over. This stage strongly reminds me of the original patchouli heavy Givenchy Gentlemen from many years ago. In that one you had the same patchouli, birch and just a hint of civet. In Peau d' Espagne the civet note is more pronounced but not overwhelming so. It gives the scent a masculine animalic sensuality and I like this stage a lot.

The fragrance lasts about five hours before becoming a skin scent but even then I can still smell wafts of the patchouli/civet combo.

Now this is definitely a polarizing fragrance!!, the medicinal opening is going to smell like disinfectant to a lot of people. But I find it compelling and interesting, the leather also is just part of the makeup of the scent. I would not call this a leather dominant scent as it appears in the heart of the fragrance and is gone by the time the basenotes appear. Also the bottle if bought from the Santa Maria Novella store comes as a splash but they give you a atomiser attachment to change it up if that's your preference. I kind of like using it as a splash, like a aftershave. Thumbs up from me I like it especially the basenotes.